Between A Rock And A Hard Place
by MissNK
Summary: It suddenly occurred to the Joestars that perhaps Alessi and his stand would be a useful tool in the fight against Dio if used correctly. With this in mind, the gang reluctantly drags his unconscious body into the car with them and resume their trip.
**Note:** I get really annoyed when I see AUs involving Dio's mercs teaming up with the crusaders while either excluding Alessi or outright killing him off. So basically I wrote this to feel better after seeing a comic that killed him because it felt petty and gross. He's just inexplicably one of my favorite JoJo characters and I have a poly ship between him, N'Doul, Midler, and Mariah, I'm so sorry.

* * *

 **Between A Rock And A Hard Place**

The feeling of movement is what made Alessi slowly begin to regain consciousness. Harsh, bright lights shining right in his eyes forced him to wince, barely able to even register his current surroundings. His shades would've been useful right about now but he must have lost those back at the house. Was he dead? No... no, he wasn't. He was sure of that at the very least. What he _wasn't_ quite sure of, however, was just how long he'd been out. A few minutes maybe? After all how hard could a child really have punched him. He'd most likely passed out from the exhaustion. Maybe the blood-loss. Yeah, that was it. He'd just fallen over after that brief encounter with Jotaro and they'd obviously decided to spare him and move along. Yeah... yeah! He was free! He survived!

"I think he's waking up."

That voice... oh no... _oh no_... Come to think of it he actually wished he was dead. His mind was still a bit hazy, but he realized he must have been sitting in a moving car. Obviously he'd been dragged inside while he was knocked out. Goof grief how long had he been unconscious. More importantly, however... he realized he was sitting in the back. Right between Jotaro and Polnareff, the very two that he's tried to murder earlier.

"GYAH!" Alessi jumped in his seat, but not as hard as he'd expected. His eyes trailed down as he noticed he'd been tied up at some point; his arms behind his back and his ankles fastened tightly together. They'd obviously taken into account just how quickly he could get away if he had the chance. Still, he figured he could slip away the second they'd have to undo the ropes, at least the ones around his feet. Whenever that would be. He'd have to walk at some point. All he knew is that he wouldn't stick around for very long after that!

"Had a nice nap?" Polnareff asked and the threatening tone in his voice caused Alessi to tremble in his seat. "You know you should be lucky that the woman you attacked is safe. You wouldn't be sitting there if it were up to me."

"W-Woman... ? Oh... _oh_! That one. S-She was cute, right?" Alessi blurted out, his voice breaking followed by a nervous laugh. "A-A shame she got in the wa-"

He suddenly felt an elbow collide with his face. It was at that point that it occurred to him that perhaps he should've omitted that last bit. The car jerked to the side for a split second in response to the commotion in the back of the car. "Polnareff, calm down!" Joseph briefly turned his head from the driver's seat to give the man a stern look before turning back to focus on the road.

"Y-Youuuu! You'd hurt an injured man? A-A defenseless man? C-C-Coward! Unimpressive!" Alessi wailed through tears, his bloodied nose stinging with the sweat that was forming on his face. His poor nose had already suffered enough after the Frenchman had used Silver Chariot to stab right through it. He was still beating himself up over not having smashed the fish tank in his fit of rage. At least then he wouldn't have had to endure this abuse. Still he had to count himself lucky that Polnareff had only stabbed him in the nose back there.

"I'm treating you better than you deserve." Pol scoffed.

There was a pause and only Alessi's sniffling in an attempt to keep the blood from running down his face could be heard. "W-What happened to Mariah?" Alessi asked. Perhaps he could ease the conversation into why the hell they'd essentially abducted him in the first place.

"She's being taken care of as we speak." replied Abdul who was sitting in the passenger seat with a disinterested dog resting on his lap.

Joseph nodded. "The Speedwagon Foundation has been following close behind us since we left Singapore and they've agreed to take you all into custody."

"A-Are you going to turn me over to them then?"

"We might." Joseph continued, sighing. It was clear to Alessi that the situation was awkward to all of them. "We're going to need your, uh... help first."

"Help... ?"

Jotaro, practically up against the window to stay as far away from Alessi's hair as possible (on the other side it was practically in Polnareff's face) finally spoke up. "We're going to need your stand to help us once we reach Dio."

"W-What? Wh... me? Me against... a-against Dio? _ME_?" Alessi nearly choked out, his heart stopping for a moment. Perhaps he'd misheard that... right?

Polnareff moved forward so as to get a better look at Alessi's face as he spoke to him, clearly loving the panic written all over it. He pointed to him. "Your stand. It took just a split second to turn me back into a kid, and just a bit longer to turn another adult into a... fetus. You also told us it reversed memories, and when you hit Jotaro? He lost the ability to summon Star Platinum, right?"

"Dio only recently got his stand as well. If you managed to sneak up on him and attacked him while he was distracted... he'll be defenseless. Perhaps even disoriented. We'll have a better advantage on him this way." Jotaro continued.

"Hey, you're a sneaky guy. You slipped away anytime an adult was present when you went after me. If you're careful... y'know." Polnareff grinned.

Alessi's eyes widened in a mix of absolute terror and frustration. If he could get away with it he would've loved to revert Polnareff back into a child and knock his teeth in. Perhaps he could even revert him back into a fetus and just flush him down a toilet. He wasn't quite sure which sounded more appealing. He bent over, curling up as much as he could while taking deep breaths. "I-I-I'm going to die. H-He'll kill me. They'll k-kill me if they catch me with you guys-" He mumbled, half sobbing.

"We can assure you that the Speedwagon Foundation will reward you for your services. We can't guarantee it will be nearly as much as what Dio promised to pay you, but with the medical expenses and the like..." Joseph trailed off.

A reward? Money? Alessi perked up for a second, but not much. Whatever they'd offer him wouldn't be worth facing his employer for. Perhaps they didn't quite understand the sort of man they were dealing with. Besides, it felt dirty helping these people. Oddly enough he did have standards. S... Sort of. While he wasn't a person accustomed to forming any sort of meaningful ties with people, he did grow fond of a few of his comrades. Midler was taken down as soon as they reached Egypt. N'Doul... N'Doul was... dead. Apparently by his own hand. The only ones left were him and Mariah and now she was hospitalized along with Midler.

Alessi sighed. What choice did he honestly have now? He was forced into this position. He was vulnerable. He wouldn't be able to take down the group now that he had him trapped and he certainly did _not_ want to risk facing off against a younger Joseph even if he tried. But... what if they were right? What if Sethan was key in defeating Dio as easily as they'd hoped? Maybe this could be a turning-point in his life. No more of that unsavory assassin business, he-

"Of course we're also going to need you to tell us where to find him in the first place too."

Yeah, no. He was going to bail the second they freed his legs.


End file.
